Summary The Institutionalreform was one of several reforms that took place during the antebellum period. The institutional period consisted of education reformsfor both men and women and prison/reforms and asylum reforms. The reason for an educational reforms was to make it possible for more people to have an education, so that not only the rich can could be educated and have this possibility, unlike many others. The reason for a prison reforms was because prisons before the reform became packed and overpopulated. They were also in very bad conditions, so many reformers such as Dorthea Dix, wanted to fix these horrible conditions. So reformers took all the insane and mentally ill prisoners and put them in asylums so that other prisons would not be overpopulated and got rid of the mentally ill so they could be treated elsewhere. Another reason for this would be because the conditions were awful and horrible to live in for these patients. The asylum reform was made so that people that are mentally ill can could be treated and taken out of public cared for, so they could get better.
Causes of Reform · Good education was only available for the richer kids whose parents could afford it. ·During this time it was believed that the gavernment was full of people who had to be educated in order to do their job properly. · The Beliefsof that every person has an innate capacity and it is society’s responsibility to help realize that capacity. · Exposure to stable social values leads to a lack of instability. · Prisons were becoming over populated with inmates. · Not enough prisons for the amount of people. · Lack of proper treatment for the mentally ill. · Similar environments were kept for people who committed different types of crimes (a psychotic murderer would be sharing a cell and time as a guy who evaded a parking ticket)
Some poorhouses housed around 50 insane persons, often serveral of them would die a week due to diseases suchs as cholera.
The census of 1850 proved that the nember od insane persons per population had increased in NewYork by 40 percent fron 1940.
Goals
make education possible for those of all social classes, including the poor
· To make prisons less populated with inmates · Create asylums for people with mental illness · Expose students to social stability and equal opportunities · To build new schools, colleges and hire more teachers · To have quality teachers and a better curriculum · Make prison conditions healthier and more productive (teaching inmates to do the right thing) · Make it possible to help people with mental illnesses instead of just throwing them in prison · To make it possible for women to get an education and go to college just like men
Continue to use as much tax money possible to put toward buildings and institutions for the insane, blind,deaf and dumb, and idiotic.
The (AMSAII) Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutionsfor the Insane continued to follow and ask state legislatures for funds.
Build larger hospitals so ill people did not have to overly severe or have good political connections to be admitted.
Strategies and Tactics for Improvement Education: There were many different actions taken by different people within different states in order to improve on their current dismal education system. In Massachusetts, the first state Secretary of the Board of Education was very proactive. He lengthened the school year, doubled teacher’s salaries, enriched the curriculum, and introduced new methods of training teachers. Other states had similar steps of development. New schools were built, teachers’ colleges were founded, and education offered new opportunities for the less fortunate children. Dorthea Dix was another reformer who was a big help in this reform movement for schools. Some other tactics/strategies were:
Horace Mann convinced citizens of merits by establishing a system of "common schools" that the public liked
Stressed importance of "moral education" by gaining support from common schools and puritans
Organized a system of public education from disparate initiatives
Stressed "moral instruction" ensuring social stability and by reinforcing social order
Between 1840-1870 public financing evoked from laissez-faire
Built pretty solid consenus among diverse constituencies for public education
Transformed from diverse, uncoordinated society of schooling to coherently organized system of schooling
Spent time thingking of ideas that would bring uniformity
Established superintendants and principles
Teacher training sessions were provided and more women became employed
Prisons/Asylums: Since prisons were overpacked and came by the few, reformers took aim to try and fix their this problem. One of the more prominent reformers was Dorthea Dix. She began a movement for new methods of treating the mentally ill. One way to do this was the building the asylums. These buildings were a combination of a hospital and a prison facility, in the purpose of helping to treat the mentally ill. Also, imprisonment of debtors and paupers went away, as did traditional practice of public hangings. Some other tactics/strategies were:
Dorthea Dix carried ideas of social order and personal harmony
Shifted ideas from schools to asylums
Asylums provided moral treatment, which emphasized the importance of in-dustriousness and emotional tranquility
Traveled state to state preaching ideas of establishments for mental hospitals
Developed reports of conditions of insane to attract others
Collected followers to help, which lead to foundation of mental hospitals in many states including: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi
This all helped many people who were mentally ill
Successes and Failures
Education Successes and Failures Within each state there was some form a formof improvement in the education field of government. Overall each state built more schools, offered new teacher programs, and increased funding in their own education departments. By the 1850’s each state adopted the principle of tax supported elementary schools. Also, new opportunities for different people (especially young girls and women) all students including women and girls were available. For example new options were available for the poorer students included infant schooling, Sunday schools, and charity schools to help enhance learning. There was new schooling for the handicapped as well. Blind, dead, or retarded hard of hearing and mental challanged students now had their own curriculum and even schools to help them progress their motor skills and other assets to learning. By the end of the movement and beginning of the Civil War, the United States had among the highest literacy rates among the world: 94% of the population in the North and 83% of the white population in the South (58% of total population). However there were still some lingering problems left after the reforms. It was evident that women were only getting paid about half of what men were getting paid to teach. Also, it was obvious that in the North, there was a better chance of getting a highly educated teacher as in the South, some teachers were barely literate.
Prisons and Asylums Lead by Dorthea Dix (woman reformer), there was a better imprisonment system within the Judicial Branch of State and National Government. Since the mentally ill were just deemed “insane” and were thrown in prison where they really couldn’t over come there illness get healthier, new asylums were set up in order to treat and imprison this group of convicts. Also a past mode of punishment was severe beating and often torture to the convicts, but new laws stopped this unnecessary abuse. This new idea also came about in the schooling and factory settings. (This also carried over to schooling and factories). Other important steps of reform were more prisons built and the number of capital crimes was reduced.
Key People/Key Events
There are many events that have occurred during this period in the area of institutional reform. Some of the most notable however are werethe educational reforms and the prison mental institutionreforms. During this period you will notice a strong reforms for education and rights to have for everyone is to be able to learn, evenespecially women. Also the reform on prison mental institution conditions which were placed on prisoners in these institutions, the mentally ill, and others who suffered from these diabolical conditions. Many people helped to reform and change both systems, however the most influential were:
Dorothea Dix
· 1816 taught girls ages 6-8 for 3 years
Dorthea Dix
· She taught poor and rich girls in Boston
All she cared about was to help the students and make life easier for everyone.
· 1822-1836 she started writing children’s books along with teaching her two classes · 1841 fought for better conditions for jails · Founded 32 mental hospitals, 15 schools for the feeble minded, a school for the blind, and multiple training facilities for nurses · Indirectly contributed to building institutions for the mentally ill, libraries in prisons, mental hospitals, and other institutions Horace Mann · 1837 appointed secretary of board of education of Massachusetts · Planned to inaugurated the Massachusetts normal school system by preparing annual repots
Horace Mann
wanted to establish free, public, non- sectarian education for every man and women
·The six main problems targeted were: 1. the public should not stay ignorant and free 2. that education should be paid for, controlled, and sustained by an interested public 3. that education will be best provided in schools that embrace children of all diversities 4. that education must be non-sectarian 5. that education must be taught by the spirit, methods, and discipline of a free society 6. that education should be taught by well-trained, professional teachers. · Supported the Prussian education system in Massachusetts · Revolutionized the school system in Massachusetts which was a basis for other schools
Amos Bronson Alcott · In 1834 opened Temple College · Planned to develop self-instruction on the basis of self-analysis
Amos Bronson Alcott
· Emphasized conversation and questioning instead of lecturing and drill · Helped students learn to write by having them show different importatn events in there lifethe meaning of various events within their life · Opposed hitting children as punishment in schools
Catharine Beecher
· 1852 founded The American Woman’s Educational Association, an organization focused on developing educational opportunities for women · Founded Western Female Institution in Cincinnati · Founded The Ladies Society for Promoting Education in the West
Catharine Beecher
· Founded colleges in Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin · Helped the develop the idea of the kindergarten system
Key Events
Bronson Alcott, a preeminent educational theorist of the era, insisted on "instruction must be an inspiration"
Opened a school in Boston's Masonic Temple and practiced his preachings
Emphasized conversation, art, storytelling, and journal writing
Criticized corporal punishment and advocated discipline
Horace Mann fought to create a nonsectarian and free public education
Helped establish first teacher-training school, campaigned for public financing of schools, and championed compulsory school attendance laws
Mann's biweekly common school Journal founded in 1838
Friedrich Froebel promoted American kindergartens for little children and an organic approach to early childhood education as shown when he wanted to promote kindergartens
Orson Squire Fowler and Lorenzo Niles Flower made contribution to physiological reform in America by popularizing phrenology-study of human skulls to determine a person's character and health
Their "Illustrated Self-Instructor in Phrenology and Physiology" in 1849 was widely read
Sunday school teacher, Dorthea Dix, taught at East Cambridge, MA jail
She saw how horrible the conditions of these jails were, especially of the mentally ill
She took the jailer to court and won, which begun passion of championing rights of the mentally ill
Worked at Common Wealth of MA that brought plight of them
First to report statistics
Founded new hospitals and provided revenue for asylums
Primary Sources
Dorothea Dix's Plea on Behalf of the Mentally Ill March, 1841 This excerpt is significant because it shows how Dorthea Dix was trying to revolutionize the way society views disabled people. The passage contains information on why Dorothea Dix was astonished to see what she had saw, when she had visited prisons, asylums, and almshouses. http://wwwf.countryday.net/FacStf/us/fossettp/CP%20miscellaneous/Dorothea%20Dix%20notebook%20excerpt.pdf.
Reform Eiselein, Gregory. 2006. In this article, it told us about how many things done by many reformers lead to the development of new reforms, especially in the area of institutional reforms. Key people played key roles in this area of reforms and help lead to better conditions in prisons/asylums and make better education for children, men, and women. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX3406400251&v=2.1&u=s0003&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w
Bibliography
Brinkley, Adam. American History A Survey. 11. 1. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2003. 330-331. Print.
Bumb, Jenn. "Dorothea Dix." Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society. 2003. Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society, Web. 17 Nov 2009. http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/dorotheadix.html#intro.
Torrey, E. Fuller, and Judy Miller. The Invisible Plague: the Rise of Mental Illness from 1750 to the Present. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2001. Print.
Summary
The Institutional reform was one of several reforms that took place during the antebellum period. The institutional period consisted of education reforms for both men and women and prison/ reforms and asylum reforms. The reason for an educational reforms was to make it possible for more people to have an education, so that not only the rich can could be educated and have this possibility, unlike many others. The reason for a prison reforms was because prisons before the reform became packed and overpopulated. They were also in very bad conditions, so many reformers such as Dorthea Dix, wanted to fix these horrible conditions. So reformers took all the insane and mentally ill prisoners and put them in asylums so that other prisons would not be overpopulated and got rid of the mentally ill so they could be treated elsewhere. Another reason for this would be because the conditions were awful and horrible to live in for these patients. The asylum reform was made so that people that are mentally ill can could be treated and taken out of public cared for, so they could get better.
Causes of Reform
· Good education was only available for the richer kids whose parents could afford it.
· During this time it was believed that the gavernment was full of people who had to be educated in order to do their job properly.
· The Beliefs of that every person has an innate capacity and it is society’s responsibility to help realize that capacity.
· Exposure to stable social values leads to a lack of instability.
· Prisons were becoming over populated with inmates.
· Not enough prisons for the amount of people.
· Lack of proper treatment for the mentally ill.
· Similar environments were kept for people who committed different types of crimes (a psychotic murderer would be sharing a cell and time as a guy who evaded a parking ticket)
Goals
· To make prisons less populated with inmatesmake education possible for those of all social classes, including the poor
· Create asylums for people with mental illness
· Expose students to social stability and equal opportunities
· To build new schools, colleges and hire more teachers
· To have quality teachers and a better curriculum
· Make prison conditions healthier and more productive (teaching inmates to do the right thing)
· Make it possible to help people with mental illnesses instead of just throwing them in prison
· To make it possible for women to get an education and go to college just like men
Strategies and Tactics for Improvement
Education: There were many different actions taken by different people within different states in order to improve on their current dismal education system. In Massachusetts, the first state Secretary of the Board of Education was very proactive. He lengthened the school year, doubled teacher’s salaries, enriched the curriculum, and introduced new methods of training teachers. Other states had similar steps of development. New schools were built, teachers’ colleges were founded, and education offered new opportunities for the less fortunate children. Dorthea Dix was another reformer who was a big help in this reform movement for schools. Some other tactics/strategies were:
Prisons/Asylums: Since prisons were overpacked and came by the few, reformers took aim to try and fix their this problem. One of the more prominent reformers was Dorthea Dix. She began a movement for new methods of treating the mentally ill. One way to do this was the building the asylums. These buildings were a combination of a hospital and a prison facility, in the purpose of helping to treat the mentally ill. Also, imprisonment of debtors and paupers went away, as did traditional practice of public hangings. Some other tactics/strategies were:
Successes and Failures
Education Successes and Failures
Within each state there was some form a form of improvement in the education field of government. Overall each state built more schools, offered new teacher programs, and increased funding in their own education departments. By the 1850’s each state adopted the principle of tax supported elementary schools. Also, new opportunities for different people (especially young girls and women) all students including women and girls were available. For example new options were available for the poorer students included infant schooling, Sunday schools, and charity schools to help enhance learning. There was new schooling for the handicapped as well. Blind, dead, or retarded hard of hearing and mental challanged students now had their own curriculum and even schools to help them progress their motor skills and other assets to learning. By the end of the movement and beginning of the Civil War, the United States had among the highest literacy rates among the world: 94% of the population in the North and 83% of the white population in the South (58% of total population).
However there were still some lingering problems left after the reforms. It was evident that women were only getting paid about half of what men were getting paid to teach. Also, it was obvious that in the North, there was a better chance of getting a highly educated teacher as in the South, some teachers were barely literate.
Prisons and Asylums
Lead by Dorthea Dix (woman reformer), there was a better imprisonment system within the Judicial Branch of State and National Government. Since the mentally ill were just deemed “insane” and were thrown in prison where they really couldn’t over come there illness get healthier, new asylums were set up in order to treat and imprison this group of convicts. Also a past mode of punishment was severe beating and often torture to the convicts, but new laws stopped this unnecessary abuse. This new idea also came about in the schooling and factory settings. (This also carried over to schooling and factories). Other important steps of reform were more prisons built and the number of capital crimes was reduced.
Key People/Key Events
There are many events that have occurred during this period in the area of institutional reform. Some of the most notable however are were the educational reforms and the prison mental institution reforms. During this period you will notice a strong reforms for education and rights to have for everyone is to be able to learn, even especially women. Also the reform on prison mental institution conditions which were placed on prisoners in these institutions, the mentally ill, and others who suffered from these diabolical conditions. Many people helped to reform and change both systems, however the most influential were:
Dorothea Dix
· 1816 taught girls ages 6-8 for 3 years· She taught poor and rich girls in Boston
· 1822-1836 she started writing children’s books along with teaching her two classes
· 1841 fought for better conditions for jails
· Founded 32 mental hospitals, 15 schools for the feeble minded, a school for the blind, and multiple training facilities for nurses
· Indirectly contributed to building institutions for the mentally ill, libraries in prisons, mental hospitals, and other institutions
Horace Mann
· 1837 appointed secretary of board of education of Massachusetts
· Planned to inaugurated the Massachusetts normal school system by preparing annual repots
-
Horace Mann
wanted to establish free, public, non- sectarian education for every man and women
· The six main problems targeted were:
1. the public should not stay ignorant and free
2. that education should be paid for, controlled, and sustained by an interested public
3. that education will be best provided in schools that embrace children of all diversities
4. that education must be non-sectarian
5. that education must be taught by the spirit, methods, and discipline of a free society
6. that education should be taught by well-trained, professional teachers.
· Supported the Prussian education system in Massachusetts
· Revolutionized the school system in Massachusetts which was a basis for other schools
Amos Bronson Alcott
· In 1834 opened Temple College
· Planned to develop self-instruction on the basis of self-analysis
· Emphasized conversation and questioning instead of lecturing and drill
· Helped students learn to write by having them show different importatn events in there life the meaning of various events within their life
· Opposed hitting children as punishment in schools
Catharine Beecher
· 1852 founded The American Woman’s Educational Association, an organization focused on developing educational opportunities for women
· Founded Western Female Institution in Cincinnati
· Founded The Ladies Society for Promoting Education in the West
· Founded colleges in Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin
· Helped the develop the idea of the kindergarten system
Key Events
Primary Sources
Dorothea Dix's Plea on Behalf of the Mentally Ill
March, 1841
This excerpt is significant because it shows how Dorthea Dix was trying to revolutionize the way society views disabled people. The passage contains information on why Dorothea Dix was astonished to see what she had saw, when she had visited prisons, asylums, and almshouses.
http://wwwf.countryday.net/FacStf/us/fossettp/CP%20miscellaneous/Dorothea%20Dix%20notebook%20excerpt.pdf.
Horace Mann's Report to the Massachusetts Board of Education
1848
This excerpt is important because it displays Horace Mann's true beliefs. These beliefs consist of why education should be free, secular, humane, and most importantly, universal. Mann in this article seems to show the country why the country has gone wrong from an educational standpoint, and how these problem can be resolved.
http://find.galegroup.com/gps/retrieve.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28KE%2CNone%2C12%29Horace+Mann+%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28AC%2CNone%2C8%29fulltext%24&sgHitCountType=None&inPS=true&sort=Relevance&searchType=BasicSearchForm&tabID=T001&prodId=IPS&searchId=R5¤tPosition=16&userGroupName=22510&docId=A16706078&docType=IAC&contentSet=IAC-Documents
Remarks on Prison and Discipline in the United States
This book is very detailed and shares all Dorothea's thoughts about prisons throughout the country. It's easy to get an understanding from her point of view on prisons and such because she had written this book herself.
http://books.google.com/books?id=b8MXAAAAYAAJ&dq=Dorothea+Dix+thoughts+on+prisons&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=JSgDS8aHC4-vlAfr67TnAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=11&ved=0CCYQ6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=&f=false (pg.17)
Reform
Eiselein, Gregory. 2006.
In this article, it told us about how many things done by many reformers lead to the development of new reforms, especially in the area of institutional reforms. Key people played key roles in this area of reforms and help lead to better conditions in prisons/asylums and make better education for children, men, and women.
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX3406400251&v=2.1&u=s0003&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w
Bibliography
Brinkley, Adam. American History A Survey. 11. 1. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2003. 330-331. Print.
Bumb, Jenn. "Dorothea Dix." Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society. 2003. Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society, Web. 17 Nov 2009. http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/dorotheadix.html#intro.
Ritchie, Susan. "Horace Mann." Unitarian Universalist Historical Society. 2009. Unitarian Universalist Historical Society, Web. 17 Nov 2009. <http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/horacemann.html>.
Torrey, E. Fuller, and Judy Miller. The Invisible Plague: the Rise of Mental Illness from 1750 to the Present. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2001. Print.
"Dix, Dorothea Lynde." Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1999. 249-250. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 Nov. 2010
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX3406400251&v=2.1&u=s0003&it=
Eiselein, Gregory. "Reform." American History Through Literature 1820-1870. Ed. Janet Gabler-Hover and Robert Sattelmeyer. Vol. 3. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006. 957-965. Gale Virtue Reference Library. Web17 Nov. 2010.[[http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX3406400251&v=2.1&u=s0003&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w "1850-1877: Education: Overview." American Eras. Vol. 7: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1850-1877. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 148-151. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX2536601386&v=2.1&u=s0003&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w
"Dix, Dorothea (1802-1887)." American Eras. Vol. 7: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1850-1877. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 216-217. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX2536601419&v=2.1&u=s0003&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w